Chaintech to return to motherboard manufacturing

Chaintech is to begin selling motherboards in Europe once again, after it departed the market seven years ago.

Chaintech, a Taiwanese company which withdrew from the motherboard market seven years ago, has declared its intention to return in foreign markets - including Europe.

Chaintech was once an up-and-coming player in the hardware industry, having produced a well-regarded range of affordable motherboards for both retail and original equipment manufacturer (OEM) customers. A few years ago, however, the company slipped out of sight: the last time it had anything interesting for us to report was at CeBIT 2004, and in 2005 the company announced its withdrawal from the motherboard market altogether in order to concentrate on more profitable ventures.

That's a decision the company has apparently come to regret: in a brief interview with TechEye early this morning, Chaintech marketing manager Candice Yu confirmed that the company is looking to return to the motherboard market internationally following successful trials of its latest products in China.

Currently, Chaintech's ATX, mATX and mini-ITX motherboard products are sold exclusively in China and Taiwan after an attempted move into memory modules didn't go according to plan. With sales proving swift, the company is feeling confident about reentering the international market and told TechEye's Mike Magee that a Europe relaunch is on the cards as soon as a supply chain can be established.

It would be a return to form for the company, if true: before it announced its strategic withdrawal from international motherboard sales in 2005, the company was a major player in Europe - especially in the mainstream OEM sector - and worked from a distribution centre in the Netherlands.

Chaintech's Yu claimed that numerous different products would form part of the launch, including original design manufacturer (ODM) parts for rebranding by other companies, and hinted at a partnership with ColorFly for ODM-themed home theatre PC products.

More competition in the market is typically a good thing for consumers, but it remains to be seen if Chaintech is to concentrate wholly on the mainstream motherboard market or branch out into premium boards aimed at enthusiasts, gamers and overclockers.

Chaintech, that name rings a bell, I had one of their boards years ago, i remember it had a black PCB and all the fittings were the blingiest gold you've ever seen but I thought it looked cool at the time :-)

@Tattysnuc - now Abit should make a comeback, their stuff was amazing before they went silly with all the tat

Man, if Chaintech comes back I'll return to all Chaintech boards. I REALLY enjoyed both the boards and the excellent support. I had mostly Chaintech all the way up to the first 939 boards, then they mostly left the market. It sucked.

MSI also stepped up to fill others shoes, Asrock are joining the big boys and even the likes of ECS are releasing good boards for the enthusiast is the market now not a bit saturated with all the big boys releasing motherboards in a variety of flavours that are just a step up with in the same chipset release . Where can the new or returning manufacturers break into the market?
Maybe looking where others fail and perfecting competitors designs with the ideas of the user implemented, how many good boards would be great if only this or that was changed?
Also I hope they rejoin the GPU market too then as being as much into aesthetics as performance I like having matching kit!

I still have a fully functioning Chaintech Zenith 7NJS complete with a matching Gold nVidia graphics card which I think is a Ti200.

It was a great board at the time and stood out from the crowd, though getting it was a pita!

I had more trouble with Abit boards so wont use them and dont miss them.

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